Chapter 470 Basketball and Business 4
That was the problem with Jake not having many friends who played basketball, he thought that would change when he started playing in the NBA, after all, he could play with his teammates, after all, Coach Guthridge had told him that sometimes training with players with little skill could be more of a hindrance than a help.
Jake started to train even more because since a few weeks before Kate started training with her dancers and her show team to sing on the day of the game, it had been a few months since Kate did the last show and even though she was still going to the gym to keep in shape she still needs to train.
Kate was a pop music singer and even though she had changed her style of music in the last few months, she still sang and danced at her shows, this was normal for a pop music star, but to achieve this a lot of training was necessary.
At the beginning of her training, Jake asked to go along to give some support while watching the training, so Jake could see the intensity of the training and how many times Kate and the other dancers had to repeat the ch.o.r.eography of the music, sometimes making small mistakes.
But as soon as Kate"s manager learned about it, she forbade Jake to attend her training, after all, it could distract Kate from training and sometimes paparazzi and journalists would stay where she trained and so they would know that Jake was her boyfriend.
Jake and Kate didn"t care that the paparazzi knew this, but Kate"s manager thought it was not yet the right time for them to find out, after a while if the paparazzi revealed that Jake and Kate were dating and they said they were together in secret for many months fans would more easily accept.
Certainly, a lot of rumors have existed since Kate hugged Jake the second time they met at a party, the rumors were even bigger now that it was announced that Kate would sing on the day of the game that Jake was organizing.
Jake understood that Kate"s manager was right and so he stayed at home training, Jake ever wanted to meet in person and talk to Kate"s manager and thank her for taking such good care of his girlfriend.
So at that time, Jake had more time to train and realized that he had gotten better after training so many times in imagination training with players who had SS rank skills, so Jake had decided to join the NBA this season.
When the games come back, players would not be so excited about the games because of the reduced game season and a lower salary, so Jake thought he would have more opportunity to play more time in the games just like the other players in this year"s draft had.
This was the last day that Jake had to train alone because that day the players that would come to the game would arrive in the city of Miami, Jake had organized all the details for the game that they would have and even the company that Kate suggested that he hire to organize the equipment Kate would need to sing on the day of the game, she had already come to the Miami Arena and knew the equipment needed for the show.
So the other day Jake had already agreed with all the players on his team that they would train at his home in Miami, which had a professional court and was a place that had no danger of having the media appear to ask questions of the players.
The players of the opposing team could train in a court that Jake had rented for the next 5 days, Jake had prepared everything to have a good game, even though Jake had arranged for the players to eat in his mother"s restaurant, the hotel where they were also had a restaurant of course.
But for the first day, he called Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter to dinner with him, after all, they were the best friends he had on the Tar Heels team and until now they were the best friends he had in the NBA.
"Hi, Jake, what a great game you organized for us, Hahaha, I thought we would still be a few months away from playing again."
"It"s true, I was already at North Carolina training with our team, I tried to help them with training and study for another semester, but I really wanted a game like that so I wouldn"t be out of shape."
"I also really wanted to play basketball again, I could just ask you to play, but I thought I could enjoy and make a game that could make us better known to NBA fans and we could also help a charity."
Vince and Antawn thought that Jake had a great idea, in fact, others might have an idea like that, but they wouldn"t be able to organize a game like Jake did so quickly and even call a singer and have the game broadcast and even get sponsors.
Of course, they didn"t know that Jake intended to pay for everything himself if he couldn"t get sponsors, plus Jake would donate $ 1 million which he would pay to pay for all the costs of the game and still help a charity.
"You said you were at North Carolina University with the Tar Heels team, so you can follow the team these past few months, it"s amazing how the Tar Heels team continued to win several games and took this game streak without losing to 75 games before they lose."
"Yes, it was a shame that the team lost, but it was really hard to break that UCLA team record, we know well the pressure we felt on having to keep winning without losing any game to try to break that record."
"Even so, I think it"s incredible what we helped to achieve, it will be very difficult for someone to break our record of winning streak, so we can enter the history of college basketball."
So the three laughed, they were in the NBA right now that they still didn"t have the opportunity to play, but none of them regretted the time they spent at the university, the three talked more about the university and Antawn asked a question that left Jake without know how to respond.
"Hey Jake, Vince and I already talked about it, it was a coincidence that we have changed teams in this draft, now I"m in the Golden State Warriors and Vince is in the Toronto Raptors, do you think we will have a good performance in our teams and that are we going to play there for many years?"
Antawn was just kidding asking Jake this, but seeing as Jake was serious as if hesitating to say what he was thinking, Antawn knew what Jake was like, so now Jake should be thinking seriously about it.
"You can tell us what you think, Jake, we just want to know your opinion, it"s not like what you say is really going to happen."
"Okay, Jake, you can tell us what you think."
"Okay, I don"t think we will be in our teams for many years, 5 or 6 years at the most, after all in the first years we will not receive a big salary and then maybe the other teams will offer much better offers."
"I myself don"t think I"m going to stay in the Los Angeles Lakers for many years, that could change if the team becomes a united team as we were in the Tar Heels team, so I might want to continue."
"As for our first year in the NBA, I think that between you two it is Vince who will be most successful because the Toronto Raptors team needs a player in his position and also because they like his style of play."
"Also, in the Toronto Raptors team there is also Tracy McGrady who is very talented, so I think Vince is going to have a better debut year."
Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison thought about what Jake said and understood what he was thinking, it was certainly true that Antawn would have to fight for a spot on his team and Vince would have a spot on his team.
But it was strange for Jake to talk about it because Tracy McGrady didn"t even play long last season on the Toronto Raptors team, but it made sense, of course, they didn"t ask how Jake thought his NBA debut year would be.
After all Jake was playing on the Los Angeles Lakers team that had Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O"Neal, in addition, the Los Angeles Lakers team switched 3 players to have Jake on their team so it was natural to think that Jake would have a lot of time to play.
They even thought it possible that the Los Angeles Lakers team could win the NBA t.i.tle with Jake on that team with great players, after all, they knew Jake well and knew how he could help the team win in many ways.
Jake could help by being put on defense because of the steals he made and the rebounds he picked up, he could be placed just to make a.s.sists and organize shots, or just to make points with three-point shots or speed shots. that he had.
They were sure that Jake would be a big NBA star in the future, they realized that Jake had a different style of play than most of the players they knew and still managed to make an average of 30 points, 10 a.s.sists and 7 steals per game.
So in the future when Jake started winning several NBA champions.h.i.+ps and becoming the MVP, his playing style would finally be praised, it was strange for them who played with the game and knew he was already a basketball genius and even so he kept improving during the season.
If they realized that Jake has improved even more in the past few months even without playing or training hard they would have to admit that even they could not imagine what Jake would become for basketball in the future.
They didn"t talk about it so as not to put too much pressure on Jake, but if he managed to maintain the average points, a.s.sists and steals he had at university playing in the NBA, he would definitely be the best player of all time.